New Tech Kids | All posts

28 Mar 2023

NewTechKids Teaches Kids about Generative AI

NewTechKids ended up making some important last-minute changes to our digital literacy programs for primary school students at Wereldwijs Primary School in Amsterdam Southeast. Why? The explosion of generative AI. In their article "Teaching Digital Literacy is a 21st Century Imperative & This is Why", Miah Daughtery and Laura B. Hansen write "In classrooms, digital literacy enables students to access information in new ways and then communicate what has been learned with others, giving students

7 Apr 2023

NewTechKids Kicks off Year-long Maker Education Program

By NewTechKids

NewTechKids is honoured to have kicked off the second edition of a Maker education initiative in Amsterdam called 'Plusklas voor Elk Kind' (Gifted Class for Every Child). Spearheaded by the Mokum Maakcoalitie, a group of maker education organizations led by the Amsterdam Public Library and its Maakplaats021 team, the initiative provides all students in groups 5, 6 and 7 at the Burgemeester de Vlugtschool with a year of Maker classes. This school is located in Amsterdam

18 Jan 2023

NewTechKids Teaching Digital Literacy at Wereldwijs Primary School

By NewTechKids

Yesterday, NewTechKids kicked off a very exciting project: teaching digital literacy to all 475 students at the Wereldwijs Primary School in Amsterdam southeast. We'll be teaching students in groups 1 - 8. Older students will be taught in a combination of Dutch and English since the language of technology is English. Wereldwijs has been designated an 'Excellent School 2022-2025' for primary education by the Dutch Ministry of Education in 2019 and 2022. Led by a

10 Jan 2023

NewTechKids Helping Amsterdam High School Plan Trip to Silicon Valley

By NewTechKids

NewTechKids is collaborating with Metis Montessori Lyceum, a high school in Amsterdam, to plan a student trip to Silicon Valley in February 2023. Thirty-five students in Metis' Coderklas will be visiting Big Tech companies as well as companies in different industries which are being transformed by technology. Students will visit Google, NASA, Blue River Technology and other organizations where they will meet leaders and technologists. This is another great way in which students can learn

13 Jan 2023

Helping Kids Develop into Empowered Digital Citizens

By NewTechKids

NewTechKids is excited to join an expert research group which is exploring how critical making (maker education tied to the ability to evaluate the consequences, implications and ethics of technology) encourages students to be active and informed digital citizens. The project is being spearheaded by Waag, a Dutch futurelab which critically examines technology, develops technological and social design skills, and encourages social innovation, in partnership with the Rathenau Institute, a Dutch research institute which researches

16 Nov 2022

Candy-grabbing Robot Race Finales to end 2022

By NewTechKids

NewTechKids is going out with a bang in 2022. We're finishing up a bunch of bootcamps at the moment and we've come up with a novel way to challenge our students to put their knowledge of computer science, coding and robotics to the test. We've been hosting a series of friendly robot races with a twist. In teams, kids design, build and code robots which can grab (wrapped) candies which are scattered on the floor

16 Dec 2022

Teaching Digital Literacy in 2023

By NewTechKids

New year, new opportunity to broaden the scope of our technology education programs. While we can't announce the full details, we'll let you in on a secret. NewTechKids will be teaching a new digital literacy program to all classes at an Amsterdam primary school next year: groeps 1 to 8 (kids ages 4-12). Digital literacy is an important part of a solid primary school education. We love the definition of digital literacy given by Hiller Spires,

6 Nov 2022

Humble Bragging About Our Students’ Tech Inventions

By NewTechKids

Nothing makes the NewTechKids team happier than showing the world what our students invent during our classes. This week, our classes for primary school students focused on space exploration, largely because the topic really ignites the imagination of kids. Plus, there's tons of great multimedia content to excite them: movies, video games, books, etc. We kept our class challenges pretty broad and provided a scenario that like Matt Damon in 'The Martian' movie, they have

10 Nov 2022

Protecting Kids from Big Tech and Big Business

By NewTechKids

With Big Tech and businesses increasingly targeting children in terms of advertising, marketing, sales, data mining and surveillance, NewTechKids encourages parents, caregivers and teachers to start thinking more critically about how technology impacts children and teens. We are one of the supporters of the Dutch Code for Children's Rights in the Netherlands. Drawn up by the University of Leiden and the Waag and commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, the Code outlines 10

8 Nov 2022

Cultivating Healthy Smartphone Usage Habits

By NewTechKids

Recently, the Washington Post published an interesting article titled 'This School Took Away Smartphones. The Kids Don’t Mind.' It was about Buxton School, a small boarding school in Massachusetts which has banned smartphones from campus. Teachers have also agreed not to use theirs. Everyone has been given a Light Phone, a minimalist phone which is only used for essential communication. So far, teachers say that students are more engaged in class and students say the ban